Medieval Multitasking: Hoccleve Translates Christine de Pizan and Imitates Chaucer, for Example his Binomials Hans Sauer professor emeritus; Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich, Germany ABSTRACT: Christine de Pizan wrote her French poem Epistre au dieu d’amours ‘Letter of the God of Love’ in 1399; Thomas Hoccleve rendered it into Middle English only three years later, in 1402, under the title Epistre de Cupide ‘Letter of Cupid.’ He shortened Christine’s 822 lines to 476 lines and also changed many details; therefore, the two versions are difficult to compare. I concentrate on Hoccleve’s use of binomials and multinomials, analyzing their word-class, etymology, semantic structure, sequence of elements, and their formulaicity. I also briefly mention later versions and translations. It is well-known that Hoccleve was a Chaucerian, which also shows in his use of binomials: Hoccleve shares 13 binomials with Chaucer, e.g. (in Modern spelling) ‘crop and root,’ ‘a duchess or a queen,’ ‘labor and travail,’ ‘last and endure.’ It is perhaps more striking that many of Hoccleve’s binomials also occur in the poetry of his contemporary Lydgate. It would be interesting to pursue this in greater detail. KEYWORDS: Chaucer, Christine de Pizan, Hoccleve, Lydgate, binomials 1. Introduction Thomas Hoccleve (or Occleve, c1369–c1426) was one of the scribes in the Privy Seal Office in London, where all the letters and documents issued by the English kings were written and copied. But he was also a poet: c13,000 Middle English lines of verse by Hoccleve have come down to us. In contrast to many medieval poets and writers, whose work is only transmitted in later copies, many of Hoccleve’s poems exist in autographs, i.e. in manuscripts written by himself. Hoccleve was a Chaucerian, i.e. he takes Chaucer (died 1400) as his model. Since both Chaucer and Hoccleve lived in London, and Hoccleve was a younger contemporary of Chaucer, it is possible that they met.
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